I did a bit of research on this place in 2011 when I had took the opprtunity of look around it. This was owned by a local family, by the name of Stephenson I think, who had lived in it for generations, farming the land for rhubarb among other things.

The landmark Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 was enacted at a time when war-time food rationing was still in force and sought to encourage long term investment by tenants by granting them lifetime security of tenure. Under the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manual ... /ihtm24211) security was extended to spouses and relatives of tenants for two successions, providing that they had been earning the majority of their income from the holding for five years." Scott Hall was sold back to the council and leased to the family as tenants as a result of the 1948 Act. Unfortunately in the mid-90s, when the famer and his wife died, there were no direct descendants deemed to be entitled to the farm, so it became the sole property of the Council.

I came across it on Leodis a while ago and went for a look at it and found that it was for sale (for £640,000 in 2010 but it didn’t meet its reserve). So my brother and I went to the viewing. Great place inside, still plenty of original features. The rafters in the roof were mortised, tenoned and pegged together in a style common in the 17/18th century. The house had suffered a little neglect as the last tenants were quite elderly but the real deterioration has been since they died.

The chap who was there during the viewing was a nephew of the last occupants and he told us all about it. It had been one of the largest rhubarb farms in the county in its time, when this area was classed as being in the rhubarb triangle. This chap had often stayed there as he was growing up and lived there for a number of years as well.

It had been known just as Scott Hall but in later years it became known as Scott Hall Cottage, to differentiate it from the BMW garage on Sheepscar Street North, which was known as Scott Hall and caused difficulty in delivering the post.

A fire took place some time after the last occupants had died. The house had belonged to the council since just after the war years. Apparently many large houses were sold to the council but the deal was that the family who sold it, and their direct descendants, would be allowed to live there as long as they wished to. The nephew was not seen as a direct descendant and the fact he had lived there held no sway so the place was just left empty for a number of years. Eventually someone broke in and set a fire and following this the council decided to put it on the market.

They also say "The current owners have held pre-planning meeting to discuss development potential, it is recognised that development can take place subject to planning approval, with the main house having to be seen to be dominating the site. The council have agreed in principal that the main Hall can be split into 4 apartments."